Bearing Capacity Evaluation of Shallow Foundations on Stabilized Layered Soil using ABAQUS

Abstract In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) is applied to calculate the bearing capacity of two footings having the aspect ratio L/B (where L and B are the length and width of the footing, respectively) equal to 1, 2 resting on one-layer and two-layer soil. Soil profile contains two soil types including sand and clay. The soil strip is 500mm × 500mm × 350mm; however, only a quarter of the model (250mm × 250mm × 350mm) is examined in the study. Two primary situations are investigated in this study. In the first situation, the one-layer system is supposed to be sandy soil with footing overlays on medium-dense sand. The soft clay/stabilized clayey layer is supposed to be on top of the sandy soil in the second condition, with the footing resting on top of the soft clay/stabilized clay. The influence of layer thickness, aspect ratio, and material property on the bearing capacity value and footing failure mechanism is studied for eight different combinations of layered soil. The bearing capacity for a one-layer case is also estimated, and it agrees well with Vesic (1973), Hansen (1970), and Terzaghi's (1943) equations. The bearing capacity of footings is observed to decline when the height of unstabilized clayey soil increases, and it increases when clayey soil is stabilized with molasses, waste foundry sand, and lime alone and in combination with each other.